What You Discover Through Buddhist Practice

What You Discover Through Buddhist Practice


Practicing Buddhism is about discovering ourselves to be in a great,

flowing river of continuities.


—Roshi Joan Halifax,“Giving Birth to Ancestors”

Concentrate Your Effort

Concentrate Your Effort


Intelligence or lack of it does not matter; between the dull and the sharp-witted there is no distinction.

If you concentrate your effort single-mindedly, that in itself is negotiating the Way.


—Eihei Dogen Zenji,“The Principles of Zazen”

An Ever-Renewing Present

An Ever-Renewing Present


All experience arises in the present, does its dance, and disappears.

Experience comes into being only tentatively, for a little time in a certain

form; then that form ends and a new form replaces it moment by

moment.


—Jack Kornfield,“No Self or True Self?”

Correcting Your Errors

Correcting Your Errors


The primary duty of a trustworthy friend is to point out your faults—

for only when you see your faults can you correct them;

only when you correct them are you benefiting from your

friend’s compassion in pointing them out.


—Thanissaro Bhikkhu,“The Power of Judgment”

Practice Radical Stillness

Practice Radical Stillness


In our times, it is radical to choose to sit still and be silent, to resist an

identity of busyness, ceaseless motion, and noise, and to reclaim our

sanity and humanity by coming home to ourselves.


—Sumi Loundon Kim,“How to Meditate While Raising Kids”

Undertake a Vital Task

Undertake a Vital Task


The great spiritual masters believe that the capacity to love our enemies

is one of the vital tasks of human evolution.


—Kevin Griffin,“May All Beings Be Happy”

An Antidote to Fear

An Antidote to Fear


[One] way to think about lovingkindness is as the absence of fear,

because when we think of times when lovingkindness is not our first

impulse … usually fear is present.


—Vanessa Zuisei Goddard,“The Four Immeasurables: A Science of Compassion”

Learning to Be Happy Right Now

Learning to Be Happy Right Now


We cannot enjoy life if we spend our time and energy worrying about what happened yesterday and what will happen tomorrow.


If we’re afraid all the time, we miss out on the wonderful fact that we’re alive and can be happy right now.


—Thich Nhat Hanh,“Free from Fear”